Method and apparatus for presenting price comparison to prospective buyers

• US 6,976,006 B1
• Filed: 09/08/2000
• Issued: 12/13/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 09/01/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Chhedi Lal Verma, Mamta Ganesan
• Original Assignee: Chhedi Lal Verma, Mamta Ganesan
• Inventors: Verma, Chhedi Lal, Ganesan, Mamta
• Primary Examiner(s): MEINECKE DIAZ, SUSANNA M
• Application Number:
  US09/659,428
• Time in Patent Office: 1,922 Days
• Field of Search: 705/14, 705/26, 705/27
• US Class Current: 705/26.64
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0603 Catalogue ordering
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0629 for generating comparisons

Abstract

A method and apparatus designed to facilitate price comparison for products, offered by a plurality of merchants, that are stocked by the merchants in stores that the prospective buyers may personally visit to see and/or touch and/or feel the products. The data from various merchants, comprising details on products including price, is collected into a computer system. A subset of the data is retrieved and organized to present a comparison to the prospective buyers. The method and apparatus of the present invention have applications on the World Wide Web as well as conventional communications systems such as voice telephony.

Claims

1. A method for using a computer for presenting a price comparison to a prospective buyer for products offered for sale by a plurality of merchants, said merchants stocking said products in stores that said prospective buyer may personally visit to see and/or touch and/or feel said products, said method comprising

collecting information from a plurality of said merchants that comprises data on said products including price;

storing said data into at least one of a plurality of databases;

entering a product and a state into the computer by a prospective buyer;

presenting a plurality of records associated with merchants having local stores in said state wherein the records show a price comparison between the merchants having local stores to said prospective buyer;

collecting additional information from sales circulars collecting information relating to merchant name, merchant address, product description, model number, regular price, sales price, coupons, rebates, colors, or sizes;

entering attributes into a search key;

entering geographical region, postal code, town name, county name, state name, product name, product category, model number, product description, price, product features, or brand name into the search key;

sorting the database according to model number;

entering data for merchants offering a specific product in a specific state into said at least one of a plurality of databases, wherein the data includes merchant name, product description, sales price, coupons or rebates;

providing access to said at least one of a plurality of databases through a browser interface;

presenting options to the prospective buyer for choosing a state and a product;

choosing a state and a product by the prospective buyer;

retrieving the data after the state and product are chosen;

sorting records in an ascending order based on sales price into a listing;

presenting the prospective buyer with the listing of merchants offering the product for sale in the chosen state;

furnishing an option to the prospective buyer to initiate sorting based on a merchant name;

mapping the data to a unique address for a geographical area-product combination pair;

connecting to the unique address;

immediately presenting comparison data for a unique address of a geographical area-product combination pair to the prospective buyer;

checking inventory at a local store of a merchant upon request of the prospective buyer to determine availability of a chosen product;

reserving the chosen product at the local store for pickup after determining availability has been performed;

entering a registration token or a credit card number;

accepting the registration token or credit card number by the merchant;

guaranteeing a purchase by the merchant based on the accepting of the registration token or credit card number by the merchant.